JIM FURYK: I'm happy with the round, good start, haven't played in I think I had about seven weeks off, so to get out there, I hit a bad drive off of 1, but after that I really hit the ball well on the front nine, hit a bunch of greens, made three birdies. Shooting 3 under was probably a little bit better than my expectations.

I've worked pretty hard the last few weeks to get my game in shape so it was nice to come out and knock some of the rust off, but a long week to go. Hopefully I'll keep improving and feeling more comfortable with my game.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Why did you decide to add this to your schedule? You figured it was a good way to get a jump start on next year?

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I think either way the tournaments I was planning on playing, I was going to have a long time off before January 1, and to go in there cold and trying to find your game early on and stuff, you want to I just thought that I could knock some of the rust off this week and it would help me prepare to get ready for January 1 and hopefully get off to a good start to the season.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Zach is sort of reaping the benefits of winning a Masters, playing a lot of these post TOUR events. He used the phrase, silly season? This is not a silly season tournament, this is a real golf tournament. Do you sort of feel that? You've played here before and you've played a lot of the other events. Can you compare?

JIM FURYK: I think when you think of silly season you think of like made for TV events, Shootout, The Skins Game and different formats, but having a four round golf tournament and having 16 of the best players here, yeah, it has more of a golf tournament feel to it. Obviously it's a small field, you don't have to beat you have to beat 15 players rather than 143, but I think, yeah, it's a golf tournament. I never really looked at it who of the players ever coined the phrase silly season? I don't think any of us ever came up with that. I don't think we look at stuff in that manner. We still have to work, go out there and prepare to play.

JOE CHEMYCZ: A little bit off topic, but I was talking to Fred. Fred mentioned that he would like to at some point be a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup captain. Do you think he'd be a good one? And also he's decided if he were, he would like to make his assistant captains Michael Jordan and Robin Williams. What is your feeling about that?

JIM FURYK: That's funny (laughter). I think Fred would do a good job. I think anyone that has a passion for our sport and a passion for that event in particular, to go out there and represent your country, everyone has got a little different take, a little different angle or look at how to handle those events. Freddie played in quite a few of them and represented our country for a long time, so I think he'd do well. I think anyone that says, hey, I really want to be a part of this and I'm really passionate about it, as all of our captains have been, would do a fine job. I'll stay away from the whole Robin Williams thing (laughter).
JOE CHEMYCZ:  What's the toughest thing to get back after seven weeks after for you?

JIM FURYK: The ability to score, get the ball in the hole. You know, go to the range and work on your swing and getting the feel back. You can go and work on your chipping and putting, but just being on the golf course, picking clubs, hitting shots, that knack. You have guys in the middle of the year that are struggling with their game a little bit and they come in the pressroom and they say I'm hitting it pretty good, I don't feel like I'm doing that bad but just not getting it in the hole. A lot of times the guys that win the tournament, they didn't hit it any better, they just found a way to score.

When you take time off, the ability to get the ball in the hole is what you lose. When we come out and we say we're knocking the rust off or not comfortable, it's just playing some rounds and getting back in that frame of mind.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Padraig Harrington has talked about how difficult it is to schedule, there's so many good events, you can't play them all, and actually agonizes over cutting the ones out that he can't play. I just wonder, do you go through that at all?

JIM FURYK: Agonize? It's painful, but I've seen the struggle (laughter). I can't remember who said it on TOUR, but they said the problem now is there's too many good events on TOUR, and I tend to agree with that.

For me personally the six or seven events that were after the TOUR Championship this year, only one of them did I really play, Las Vegas, consistently. So now those used to be weeks off sprinkled in between some events that I love to play. Now you kind of took my weeks off out and I'm struggling. If I play all the same events that I have in the past, it's almost too much golf. I'm not fresh come the end of the year. And then you really don't want to take some events off.

But there's a couple events that I kind of like that I can't get to anymore, and it's difficult. Honestly if I wanted to take care of my body and feel 100 percent at the end of the year, there's probably more that I should take off, and that's what I think a lot of us are going through.

JOE CHEMYCZ: I don't know how much you've heard about this because you were out on the course, but the Mitchell report came out today and named 85 names, and as a baseball enthusiast I just wonder what your thoughts are on that, whether you think it's a sad day.

JIM FURYK: Baseball enthusiast might be stretching it for me.

JOE CHEMYCZ: As a general sports fan.

JIM FURYK: I'd be football one, basketball two and baseball would be a distant three for me. I enjoy the sport, I love going to the park, but I could find myself watching football from about 1:00 to 11:30 on a Sunday. I can't get through a baseball game on television for nine innings. I love the game, I played it as a kid, but enthusiast would be tough.

You know, unfortunately they made the bed, they have to lie in it at this point, and hopefully they get things settled.

I think all the signs were there, heads were turning and looking the other way years and years and years ago, and now they have to live with what's happened and try to sort it out and fix it. 85 names, that's amazing. I guess I'm enough of a sports fan and baseball fan that I'm curious to see who the names were. Is it hard evidence that those people...

JOE CHEMYCZ: Yeah, trainers named names. (No microphone.) A whole bunch of MVPs, Miguel Tejada, basically everybody who's been any good in the last ten years.

JIM FURYK: It's sad. The names are public, I can go on line and pull up the Mitchell report and it lists 85 names?

JOE CHEMYCZ: The new drug testing policies next year, do you feel there was a need for something like that? Obviously in baseball but there hasn't been any mutterings or rumblings of that type in golf, so do you feel a necessary thing?

JIM FURYK: It's a trick question, unnecessary. I don't think any of us feel there's an issue or a problem, but I like the fact that we're doing it. I like the fact that they're testing and I think it's a good idea.

The problem is it's a Catch 22. If we don't test we get criticized; if we do test we get criticized because it looks like we have a problem. In baseball they have been testing and a lot of the fans don't think they're catching the players. There's always details.

But I think it was a good measure for us, and I see no negative in us starting up the program. It's just right now the players I think really have to educate themselves on our procedures and what is right, what is wrong, and take a look at the prescriptions and different things that you have just to make sure you're fine and there's no embarrassment at the end. But I don't think there's an issue, and I'd be very, very surprised if any of our players test positive.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Zach Johnson into the interview area. Zach with a 3 under par 69, 10 of 13 fairways, 14 of 18 greens, 28 putts, not bad for your first trip around, I guess, and welcome to the Target World Challenge.

ZACH JOHNSON: Thank you. It's one of those things, I guess I really didn't have any expectations. It's kind of they call it the silly season. If this is a silly tournament, then we've got to recheck our tournament protocol because this is as good as it gets as far as I'm concerned.

But yeah, I'm very pleased with today. I hit a lot of good shots. I made some putts, missed some putts, pretty much evened out, I think.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Obviously a fantastic year with the Masters. Can you look back and review it at all, and can you still believe you're playing that well throughout this long period of time?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, the first part of your question, yeah, I mean, look back and reflect on that. Those are positive thoughts right there, I mean, thoughts that certainly just give you confidence and give you the realization that you can perform at a high level in a high arena. I mean, what was the second part of the question?
Oh, yeah, that's what I'm supposed to do. I don't expect to play well every week or every day, but I mean, yeah, I expect a lot out of myself. Scores, you know, I don't really look at that a whole lot, but I want to keep improving. That was one of the most encouraging things about Augusta or the whole year is I know I can improve. I won after Augusta, which certainly helps my confidence and my momentum, but I know there's still a lot of room for improvement.

I can certainly get longer, that's very evident. I mean, somehow. Titleist has really helped me out and they're really trying to figure out how to do that with technology. I've got no complaints there. They've been patient, I've been patient.

Physically I can get stronger, so I'm working out. The whole year has been good. And I've got a baby.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Do you go places now and do they know who Zach Johnson is?

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, that happens more often than it did prior, without question. I'd say once the Ryder Cup hit there, too, there was a change, as well. Augusta certainly did. Any time you do something like that and that's sort of a spectacle, I mean, things are going to change a little bit as far as notoriety and whatnot.
I mean, look at DiMarco. He finished second at Augusta and he finished second at the British Open. I'm around him all the time, and he's a good friend. That guy, I think his face is more known than mine now, and that's good because that's the way Chris is.

If you play well in contention like that and you perform well in an event like that, things are going to change like that. But I don't want it to be much more than what it is right now.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Obviously the attention and the demands escalated after you won. Have you had any chance to just sort of decompress from it all, and have you sort of developed a game plan to deal with all that going forward, and has any of that been difficult?

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, I've had that question a bunch. My best response is yeah, it's been very difficult. The difficulty lies in the fact that we're just inundated with stuff. Some of it is chaos and you've got to control that, of course, but a lot of it is just stuff. It's just substance that you've got to go through, whether it's requests or mail or signings or I'm on the phone with my agent at least once or twice a day, minimum, just trying to figure out a game plan and scheduling, things of that nature.

Decompressing, yeah, I mean, I've taken time off. I feel like there's no reason why I can't keep going the way I'm going. You've got to take time off. I put just as much value on time off as I do playing. Clearly the best player in the world takes time off and comes back fresh for a reason. I know I should do that, too.

It's understanding your limitations, it's understanding kind of how you perform best, and I think I did that pretty well after Augusta. I got sick during the middle of the summer, so I learned a little bit there, for sure. But just worn out. But all in all, I think we're going in the right direction, and I've got a great team to help me.

JOE CHEMYCZ: (No microphone.)

ZACH JOHNSON: Yes, all the time.

JOE CHEMYCZ: When you said early on about silly season and your checking the protocol, does this not feel like a silly season event to you?

ZACH JOHNSON: No, it does not.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Why?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, first of all, I mean, it's set up we've got a dining area. Everything from the locker room inside to registering to the rules officials on the golf course. I mean, last week wasn't, either, but it was a team event. That was a little bit different. This week just feels like another week. It's just nice being in twosomes with 16 guys. And the purse is phenomenal, and the sponsors here in Target and Williams and Dole or whoever, they've made it into an event that it's a PGA TOUR event. It's almost like a World Golf Championships without a full field. It's awesome.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Do you take yourself seriously out there?

ZACH JOHNSON: Absolutely.

JOE CHEMYCZ: As much as you would at the...

ZACH JOHNSON: I didn't make any cheese at the Skins Game. I've got to make some cheese this week, baby.

I mean, here's the thing. Can you take it not seriously at times? Absolutely I can, but every time I do that my game goes astray and it's a little harder to get it back. Even if I'm playing poorly, I've still got to give it a shot. I'm obviously not going to give up, but I'm not going to take it lightly because you can't do that. I don't know how to compare it, but you can't take your job lightly for one week. You know what I mean? It's not something I tend to do.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Also I wanted to ask you, I don't know what your schedule has looked like the last two or three years, but winning The Masters and going through this first year of a new schedule, does that cause you to rethink things for next year?

ZACH JOHNSON: I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. You mean as far as the opportunities in '08?

JOE CHEMYCZ: Any kind of appearances or anything or opportunities, but whatever your schedule has been, your TOUR schedule has been, does it change now that you've...

ZACH JOHNSON: No, I don't think so. I mean, it's going to be pretty similar. I mean, the FedEx obviously has changed everybody's schedule to an event. You're playing a little heavier in the summer, some guys not. You're playing a lot. I mean, '08, I don't play a whole lot on the West Coast. I typically, if have the luxury of going to Mercedes, I'll play both of those and I might play two or three after that on the West Coast and then get ready for the East Coast, which is typically when I start to peak a little bit.

If things are going the direction they should, there's no reason to change it I don't think. As you're aware, there's one more week now before Augusta, so that's the only difficulty because of the timing.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Can you talk a little bit about today's round and what you like and don't like about this course?

ZACH JOHNSON: Today's round was great. I thought I covered that. I hit a lot of good shots, hit a lot of greens, hit a lot of fairways, made some putts, missed some putts, pretty much evened out. I made a sand shot, so that evened out some of the putts I made for sure. All in all, a lot of positives.

The golf course itself, what do I think about that? I'm trying to think of a bad hole. I mean, sure I can't find a bad hole, first of all. I like the fact that there's five par 3s. That's not normal. I think that's nice. The rules officials can tweak it a little bit and put tees in different spots, and it's different every day. There's a lot of character, and there's not one hole similar to the next. A lot of elevation change, it's great, and the houses aren't shabby.

16 I hit one of the better drives of the day, and I'm sitting there perfect, I've got a perfect yardage, just a normal 3 wood. It's going to fly to the front of the green if not further. It wasn't easy, the ball was sitting a little bit down in the fairway and I kind of chunk pushed it well, I didn't kind of, I pushed it big time into the water, and now my options were to my only option was I had to drop it on the clippings, whatever you call those, like bark shavings. What do you call that stuff? Whatever.

So I cleared like a drop area because I had good yardage because I could clear that stuff out without touching the dirt, dropped it on it, and it literally bounced probably three or four feet forward, it's sitting up on top of this bark, and I slid underneath it, in the bunker, made a bunker shot, 5. I had to do that myself. I had no idea. I was just trying to get up and down.

JOE CHEMYCZ: While you were out on the course today the Mitchell report came out, and 85 Major League players were named. As a fan of sports in general, does it sadden you a little bit?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, any time something like that happens, it's obviously not a good thing. I'm not a huge baseball fan per se, but I haven't seen the Mitchell report yet. I've heard some things on ESPN Radio prior to getting here, but does it surprise me that things keep coming out like this? Absolutely not. It doesn't surprise me. I don't know anything about that stuff frankly, but those type of athletes, whether they're football, baseball, basketball, what have you, are playing at a very high level, and their bodies are certainly taking a toll. I don't have much opinion on that. I don't understand it. Giving an opinion on it would probably be completely ignorant because I don't know anything about it.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Given that, do you think the fact that the TOUR is bringing in testing next year is necessary?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, I appreciate you calling us athletes (laughter). You know, necessary? Probably, just because I think to date we're the only sport that didn't have any sort of testing. I don't think it's going to be much of an issue, and I say that because I haven't heard any rumors, I haven't seen anything, I don't know anything. Is that naïve to think? Potentially. I don't know.

I think the TOUR is just touching all the bases to make sure that our sport is held in high regard. There's a lot of integrity involved, a lot of it's a gentlemen's game. This should or could help maintain that even more than what it is, which is pretty good. Our product is awesome. The most recognizable athlete in the world is playing our sport. That's pretty good.

RORY SABBATINI

On his recent schedule coming into the Target World Challenge:
I had five weeks off. I went to South Africa and Australia the last two weeks and then came here. I’ve got a little jet lag. I started to make some putts out there. It’s still all pretty competitive here. We all have the mindset to win this thing.

On shooting a 69 and coming back to play in a second consecutive Target World Challenge:
I think it’s a fun course to play. It’s not easy to lay out the golf course in this kind of terrain but they’ve done a great job with that. I thought it was a fun course to play last year and it’s good to be back.

Recapping his recent golfing travels:
I've played a lot. I’ve probably spent about 100 hours on an airplane in the last month or so. I played the Volvo Masters in Spain, flew down there from Dubai, and then I went back up to London to Shanghai. I made my way over to the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan, and then down to South Africa and then back to London, so air miles is not really an issue at the moment.

On carrying over his recent good form to the Target World Challenge:
I’ve come back a little bit this fall. Normally, I tend to do that, play well early on in the year. I’m playing better in the fall. Things have got a lot better in the last four, five tournaments I’ve played. It’s kind of nice to back it up with a couple of decent results. I’m hoping to have another one this week. And then I just have a short break and then on the way to Mercedes again.

DAVE SENKO: Tiger, congratulations on your third win in the event. Maybe just get us started, talk about your day, and then we'll get some questions.

TIGER WOODS: Well, starting out the day I was one back with Chris, and I knew that given the conditions as soft as they were today and really no wind out there, I knew I had to make some birdies out there. I figured those two guys would maybe make some birdies back there. I guess I knew if I had 5 or 6 under par by the end of the day I'd have a pretty good chance of winning the golf tournament, and I was fortunate enough to shoot 66 today.

DAVE SENKO: I hope it isn't too early to flip the calendar, but you're halfway to another Grand Slam. What are your thoughts about that and is that realistic?

TIGER WOODS: Well, you've got to keep plugging along and make sure you peak at the right times. Obviously Augusta is obviously a long way away but still in the back of all of our minds, and the whole idea is to play well leading up to the tournament and hopefully have your game just peak at the right time that particular week. Hopefully I'll do the same thing at Oakmont.

DAVE SENKO: How important was it to finish the year with a win, and does something like this carry over into the next couple of events next year?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it was a real nice positive because the last two 72 hole stroke play events I finished second, and I didn't want to have it a third straight time. Even though I got the Grand Slam, it was only two days. But to play four rounds against a quality field like this and come out on top, it always gives you a shot of confidence going into next year.

DAVE SENKO: Can you talk about when you have I believe you go up by two shots after Ogilvy and DiMarco finish three holes. Do you sort of thrive off that knowing that you've built that lead so early, and does it feel like...
 
TIGER WOODS: Before you even go on, I didn't know I had a lead until we got to the 9th hole because there's no leaderboards on the front nine. So when I got to 9, I looked at it, and I had at the time a two shot lead, and if I made the putt on 9 I knew I had have a three shot lead. I told (caddy) Stevie (Williams), let's get a three shot lead going into this back nine, and I made the putt.

DAVE SENKO: You saw it at the turn because there's no boards, just one on 4?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I only saw that one on 9, otherwise I didn't see any leaderboards on the front nine. I guess you're right, there is one on 4 but I didn't see it. I had just made bogey so I wasn't real happy. My head was down.

DAVE SENKO: You opened with a win in your first tournament of the year and closed it with a win in the last tournament, and obviously you talked about what a traumatic year this was. Can you just sort of review it quickly? Start with first and end at first.

TIGER WOODS: Well, the bookends, it's always nice to get Ws for bookends. But the middle part for me, my year golf wise was pretty good this year. Overall I'm very pleased with the progress I've made working with Hank, and things started solidifying this summer.

I mean, it was nice to actually put a lot of the pieces together and just go out there and play. Obviously to win as many tournaments as I did from summer until now was an awful lot of fun.

DAVE SENKO: When you come in here every day and have kind of a laundry list of things you weren't happy with, whether it was speed of putts or iron play, yet you win by four strokes, you kind of win going away, what does that say about the state of your game and where you are in relation to the rest of the guys on Tour?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I was just being honest. You asked me how did I do out there, and I was just being honest. I just told you the things that I thought I needed to clean up in order to win the golf tournament, and today I did that. Today I hit the ball a lot better and I made some putts.

But prior to that it was one or the other. I drove it great, hit my irons not so good and putted not so good. I mean, it was just one of the three was working.

I put most of the pieces together today, and it was fun to go out there and obviously make birdies early and put a lot of the heat on the guys behind me.

DAVE SENKO: Drawing comparisons between this and 2000, not based on mechanics but purely results, where would you see the biggest difference? Would you just see it as one extra major or margin of victory, things like that?

TIGER WOODS: I think if you compare the two years, I think this year would have to be better because of obviously things I've been dealing with off the golf course. 2000 I didn't have to deal with that.

DAVE SENKO: If you had a peaceful year, do you ever think about what might have been?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I mean, I won my first two events of the year. I got off to a quick start of the year. Hey, life is full of mysteries and you've got to deal with things as they come. Who's to know that if Dad didn't struggle and end up passing that I wouldn't have played that well in the summer; who knows.

DAVE SENKO: Mechanically, do you understand what you’re doing when you’re making changes?

TIGER WOODS: Understanding of mechanics now and things are starting to solidify. This summer was huge for that. Basically we went back to Hank and I went back to what I was working on at the beginning of the year after I took the break at the Western after that first round where I did not play well. I said, “You know what, let's forget everything that's happened. Let's work on what we did at the beginning of the year that won the first two events and let's get everything organized,” and we did that in one afternoon, and all of a sudden it turned around, and boom.

DAVE SENKO: Was it at the Western that you turned around your season?

TIGER WOODS: Without a doubt, there's no comparison. No other practice session was more important than that one. I had played three consecutive poor rounds, three in the U.S. Open and one at the Western.

DAVE SENKO: How much can we expect you to play this coming season? Can we expect to see you in the Mercedes? Can we expect to see you in all those events that are playoff events and leading up to it?

TIGER WOODS: Jerry, I'm going to play every event next year (laughter). I'm not taking any weeks off (laughter).

You know me, I'm going to sit back here in the next week and start playing out my entire schedule for next year. I wanted to get this tournament over and done with and get on vacation and enjoy skiing, having a great time, and then I'll get the entire itinerary for next year and start planning the schedule, what I need to do and when I need to do it.

DAVE SENKO: You described the 16th hole. How important was that? And can you describe your second and third shots?

TIGER WOODS: What hole?

DAVE SENKO: 16.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, 16. It was not a very good 5 wood second shot. I kind of lost it I was trying to hit just a little smoothie up there and I hit just a nice little cut and I over cut it and ended up embedded on the bank, took the two drops and got a decent lie but the stance was terrible, but it was good enough the lie was good enough where I felt comfortable I could get the ball over the bunker and keep it on the green. I was just trying to build some kind of stance where I could basically make contact, and I was able to do that and then make the putt. It was nice to do that because the guys were back out in the fairway watching.

That could have easily that ball goes in the hazard, I could have easily made bogey there just like I did yesterday.

DAVE SENKO: You called a rules official over?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it was about an inch closer. Just wanted to make sure to clarify.

DAVE SENKO: I didn't hear the ceremonies. I assume just as in the previous two wins, you donated the money to the Foundation?

TIGER WOODS: Uh huh.

DAVE SENKO: Obviously you want to win the tournament, you were talking about your competitive nature. But I assume being able to win and give the money is almost as gratifying, if not more so?

TIGER WOODS: You know it's going to help kids, and that's the beauty of it, is that this entire tournament, all the people that came out and supported it and all of you guys who came out and are basically covering this event enhance what we're trying to do to help kids. The learning center is one small steppingstone toward what we're trying to do in building the overall Foundation, trying to grow it globally.
This was a step in the right direction for that.

DAVE SENKO: We all know how much you like racking up all the Ws, how much you like being in contention on the last day. But so much rides on this week for the Foundation and because you're the tournament host, does it feel different for you being out there in the zone?

TIGER WOODS: Once you're on the golf course, you're out there playing. That's the beauty of it. Obviously I've got a lot of responsibilities off the golf course this entire week, but once you get inside the ropes, it's time to mix it up with another 15 boys out there, see what we've got. That to me is fun, and especially today when you've got the U.S. Open champion there and you've got Chris DiMarco who's played so well the last few years, and you knew it was going to be a battle. That gets your juices running.

DAVE SENKO: Talking about next year, do juices start to flow when you think about the new points structure and how that's going to change the mindset out there?

TIGER WOODS: Well, first of all, I need to understand the points structure. I don't. I don't know it yet. I don't know what each tournament is worth, if a major is worth more or less or the same, I don't know. I really don't know. We'll see what happens.
Once I figure it out, then I'll let you know. It's like the World Ranking system, isn't it? Or QB passer rating.

DAVE SENKO: Do you like the concept of it? Not the fact that it ends earlier, but do you like the concept of it?

TIGER WOODS: It's interesting, it really is. It's so different that we've never experienced anything like this before. It's weird in the sense that the points system determines the Top 30 but the Money List determines whether you keep your card or not. I don't know, it'll be very interesting to see the two dynamics there.

DAVE SENKO: Just throw touchdowns and not interceptions.

TIGER WOODS: That's it. Just dump it off to the running back and let him do all the work. Perfect.

DAVE SENKO: As you look back on this golf year, is there one shot more than any other which stands out as the most satisfying? And is there one shot that if you could take it back and have a second crack at it, you would?

TIGER WOODS: How about all 36 holes at the U.S. Open. They were pretty dreadful. What did I finish, 50 over par or something? It wasn't very good there.

As far as I wish I could have putted better at The Masters this year. I didn't putt well the entire week and especially didn't putt well on Sunday. I was struggling with speed the entire week, and then on Sunday it just became even worse. I hit the ball great the entire week. I put myself in position to make a bunch of putts, and I didn't do it at all.

DAVE SENKO: And if there was one shot you had to pick that was your most satisfying of the season?

TIGER WOODS: Most satisfying? Well, that's a great question. I know there was a series of shots, but they weren't in competition. It was a practice session I had at the Western when I hit balls about three hours out there. I had about an hour where I really hit it that was fun. I really hit it good. I had every shape shot, height, spin, whatever you wanted, I had it for about an hour. That's what you're always looking for. Then I just built upon that for the rest of the year.

DAVE SENKO: In terms of your will to win, you've described yourself as having a football player's mentality. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I don't think you really lay up on par 5s on the football field, do you? You'd get run over. Obviously you've got to bring everything you've got or else you get hurt.

In our sport it's different. Some of the guys don't bring it every day, and I just don't understand that. It's not that hard to concentrate for five hours. Like I said, you've got 19 other hours to recover, which is fine.

That's why I bring it each and every day. It's not that hard to focus for five hours, step up and bring everything you've got, and that's the way I've always played. I can't play any other way because I can't deal with the fact that if I go home at night and look at myself in the mirror that I didn't try as hard as I could have. I just couldn't live with that.

DAVE SENKO: What did it mean to you to have some of the kids that you've helped at the learning center now come out today?

TIGER WOODS: They were all out there, I could see them out there and recognized most of the faces out there and I could hear them hooting and hollering, which was fun. That's what it's all about. Some of these kids were going down the wrong path and now these kids have turned it around and now they're going off to college, which is something they never thought about doing before.

It's nice to make a positive impact like that on someone's life, and hopefully we can do it on a much grander scale than just here in Southern California.

DAVE SENKO: In the looking ahead category, Ernie (Els) won the South African Open today. He vanished most of the year except for the Open. What did you see out of him this year, and what are your expectations of him going forward concerning the past couple years he's had?

TIGER WOODS: Well, Ernie just basically struggles with his knee, getting confidence to go ahead and swing aggressively onto it. Hey, when I came back after my knee surgery in 2002, I just dealt with the pain and just played through it.

But there is some you have to suck it up sometimes and say this is really going to hurt and hit a shot. His knee surgery was a lot more extensive than mine. He had to deal with a lot more scar tissue and things than I ever had to deal with. So for him to try and battle through all that and as well as get his game back because he took so much time off, it's not easy to do.

There are repercussions that you don't really realize until you have to hit a shot from awkward lies, and it's like, well, this is where it really grabs me. I've got to hit it anyways. Sometimes it's not too bad, then other times it kills you, then other times it's not too bad. It takes a little bit of time.

DAVE SENKO: Just going back to your previous answer about hopefully the scale of the learning center will be much bigger in Southern California, could you say where you hope it will be in say five years' time?

TIGER WOODS: Well, in five years' time hopefully we'll have at least another one built and our Start Something program will already be overseas and we'll be expanding that way.

DAVE SENKO: Just going back to your answer before that about concentrating for five hours, do you think one of the reasons why other players can't is that they play too much? Some of them played 31, 32 events this year.

TIGER WOODS: I don't know, I've never done it before.

DAVE SENKO: Thank you, Tiger.